The National Assembly voted on Thursday to make the most serious crimes committed against minors imprescriptible. Adopted by 93 votes to 51, the amendment, tabled by Green Party MP Arnaud Bonnet, removes the time limit beyond which criminal prosecution becomes impossible. The measure has been incorporated into the draft law on child protection, currently under first reading.
Victims will be able to take legal action without any age limit.
The text specifically targets rape and related crimes committed against children, as well as violence resulting in death or mutilation, torture and acts of barbarity, kidnapping, abduction, human trafficking, certain forms of exploitation, and war crimes committed against a minor. Until now, a victim of rape suffered during childhood could file a lawsuit for 30 years from the age of majority, that is, until they reached the age of 48. After this period, the statute of limitations normally prevented any prosecution, even when the victim was only able to reveal the facts decades after they were committed. The amendment also eliminates the "sliding statute of limitations" mechanism. This mechanism allowed the time limit applicable to a first victim to be extended when the same perpetrator subsequently committed another sexual offense against a different minor. With the elimination of the statute of limitations, the right to seek justice is directly based on the severity of the crimes suffered by each child.
"A form of crime against humanity"
Perrine Goulet, Chair of the National Assembly's Delegation for Children's Rights, defended the removal of the statute of limitations, highlighting the extent of sexual violence suffered by children in France. : "When you know that 160,000 children are victims of sexual violence every year, when 10% of our population has been a victim of incest, it's a form of crime against humanity." The MoDem MP, along with Arnaud Bonnet and Alexandra Martin, led a parliamentary mission dedicated to the imprescriptibility of violence against minors. Their report, submitted on April 15, recommended making crimes committed against children imprescriptible so that victims could obtain a judicial review of the facts, regardless of when they manage to speak out.
Gérald Darmanin supports the measure despite a constitutional risk
Justice Minister Gérald Darmanin supported the amendment during the debates. However, the Keeper of the Seals warned members of parliament that a review by the Constitutional Council could weaken the provision. : "It is not entirely certain that the Constitutional Council will validate this possibility. We must be careful not to make a political promise that will not be followed through." Gérald Darmanin explained that several magistrates and departments within his ministry had expressed their reservations. The main difficulties concern the preservation of evidence for an unlimited period, the reliability of recollections decades after the events, and the conditions under which investigators could reconstruct very old crimes. The minister nevertheless defended the need to allow victims who come forward later to seek justice. He noted that some people only testify several decades after the events, sometimes as they approach death. He also highlighted the progress made in digitization, forensic medicine, and scientific techniques, which now make it possible to preserve and use far more evidence than in the 1960s and 1970s.
LFI and the RN oppose the amendment
The measure met with opposition from members of La France Insoumise (LFI), several Green and Communist elected officials, as well as members of the National Rally (RN). LFI co-rapporteur Marianne Maximi challenged the method used to fundamentally alter the statute of limitations. She argued that a reform of this magnitude should have been preceded by more in-depth debates, further expert hearings, and an opinion from the Council of State. RN MP Sophie Blanc defended maintaining the imprescriptibility of crimes against humanity only, citing their exceptional gravity and the overall balance of criminal law.
The text still needs to go through several stages
The adoption of the amendment enshrines the principle of imprescriptibility in the draft law on child protection, but the provision has not yet entered into force. The entire text must be formally voted on in the National Assembly on Tuesday, July 21, before continuing its parliamentary review. The measure also provides for making civil actions imprescriptible, allowing victims to seek compensation for the same acts. This possibility would end upon the death of the person held responsible. For older cases, the new rules could apply to acts that were not already time-barred when the law came into effect. A procedure definitively extinguished by the statute of limitations would not be automatically reopened.
